Older people with levels of cholesterol and triglycerides that go up and down a lot may be at an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and dementias compared to people whose levels are steady.
A study in Neurology looked at data from 11,571 people in Minnesota over the age of 60 who didn’t have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. They assessed their cholesterol markers–total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) — three times in five years before the study even started.
Then they divided them into groups based on how much those figures went up and down. And they looked at the trends over an additional 13-year span. During that time frame, 2,473 of the participants were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.
They found that people in the group with more fluctuations in total cholesterol had a 19% higher risk for developing the diseases. People with the most fluctuations in triglycerides had a 23% increased risk for the diseases. But there wasn’t a link to the diseases in people with LDL and HDL fluctuations.
“It remains unclear why and how fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides are related to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” Suzette J. Bielinski, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said in a statement. “Further studies looking at the changes over time for this relationship are needed in order to confirm our results and potentially consider preventative strategies.”
Bielinski explained that many people get regular cholesterol and triglyceride screenings. Looking at how levels fluctuate over time may help doctors find out who is at a greater risk for dementia. And that could help them better understand how dementia develops. They also want to see if making an effort to level out fluctuations could be helpful in reducing the risk for dementia.
